graso

Forms

graso (feminine grasa, masculine plural grasos, feminine plural grasas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin grassus, from crassus (“fat, thick”), changed under the influence of grossus (“thick”).^[2][3][1] The form with ⟨g-⟩ is already found in Late Latin authors such as Pelagonius in the 4th century.^[3] García de Diego considers the reduction of ⟨cr-⟩ to ⟨gr-⟩ a normal sound change, and the influence of the other adjective unnecessary.^[4] The learned doublet is craso, from 1550.^[3][1]

Corominas finds the adjective rare and unpopular in Castilian, and suspects that it is not inherited but was formed late from the noun grasa, itself possibly of foreign origin though old.^[3] Elsewhere the word is the usual one for “fat”: Catalan gras, Occitan gras, French gras, Italian grasso and Romanian gras.^[3] Portuguese has only the rare adjective graxo, formed from graxa (“grease”), which like Catalan greix continues Vulgar Latin *crassia.^[3][5]

The origin of the Latin adjective is unclear.^[6][1] De Vaan rejects a link with a root meaning “to wind” and with crātis (“wickerwork”), and notes that it belongs to a group of adjectives for bodily shapes with a double consonant, such as flaccus.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Old Spanish Textual Archive has 14 occurrences in five texts, the first dated 1385.^[7] Corominas's first record is Alfonso de Palencia, who contrasts obeso, fat on the outside, with grasso, fat inside.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word is missing from Nebrija, Covarrubias and most medieval and classical authors.^[3] Autoridades quotes Laguna's Dioscorides (1555) on oil „y todas las cosas grassas”, and Lope de Vega using grasso as a noun for “fat”.^[3][8] In the Americas it is recorded from 1548, of fat used as an ointment and of fatty fish and oysters.^[9]

Today it is used mainly in chemistry, biology and cooking (materias grasas, alimentos grasos, ácido graso) and of greasy hair or skin.^[3][2] In Salamanca it is said of land still too wet to work.^[10] The noun grasa, recorded from the first half of the 14th century, is far more common than the adjective.^[3]

Timeline

• 1385 – the first of five texts with the word in the Old Spanish Textual Archive.^[7]
• 1548 – first record in the Americas, from Santo Domingo.^[9]
• 1550 – first record of the learned craso.^[3]
• 1555 – Laguna's Dioscorides speaks of cosas grassas.^[3][8]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades enters grasso as “greasy, fatty”.^[8]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from craso.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. fatty, greasy; containing fat.^[2][1]
2. Of a fatty nature: una crema grasa.^[2][10]
3. Of hair or skin: having too much oil.^[2]

Noun

1. (masculine) Grasa, fat; the fatty part of something.^[2][10]

Word family

• grasa
• grasiento
• graseza
• grasoso
• engrasar

Related words

• craso
• grueso
• Latin crassus
• Italian grasso

Usage notes

Ácido graso “fatty acid” is the usual chemical term.^[2][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. graso
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 200
4. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. crassus
5. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1721
6. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. crassus
7. ^ a b Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. graso
8. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 76
9. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. graso
10. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. graso
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 540
12. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. graso